At the time, the company said it was working on expanding the system’s functionality to other crops.

Deere has now made good on that promise. For 2027 model year machines, it will be compatible with wheat, barley and canola.

“For model year ’27 we have a really exciting upgrade for our small grains customers,” says Joshua Ladd, marketing manager for application equipment.

“This year we’re ecstatic to roll out our small grains functionality for wheat, canola and barley in crop, and we expanded the lineup for our variable rate function for later season passes with desiccation pre-harvest passes.”

All three levels of See and Spray (Select, Premium and Ultimate) are now integrated into the same basic platform. That gives buyers more customization options, such as opting for single or dual-tank capability.

The second generation Gen 2 version also includes changes that give it improved performance over the original Gen 1 release.

Notably, the location of the boom’s centre cameras has been moved to reduce the number of times they unnecessarily revert to full broadcast mode because of vision obstructions.

“The most consistent thing we saw for a fall-back trigger was on the centre of the machine because there were four cameras tucked in on the centre behind the rear tires,” says Ladd.

“The dust they kicked up would occlude the cameras….

“With Gen 2, it’s still 36 cameras, but for those four cameras that were on the centre frame behind the tires, we’ve now located those to the front. (Moving) the four cameras to the front should significantly reduce the dust issue.”

The new hardware for the Gen 2 system is lighter and reduces weight stress on the boom.

“We’ve now gone from 10 processors to three,” he adds.

“We now have a combination of three processors and five video extenders (VEX). The VEX is overall a lighter component than the processor.”

With that lighter load, Deere can now offer full boom lighting to allow green-on-brown operation after dark in fallow fields. The brand is working on making the green-on-green system usable at night, but so far it isn’t.

See and Spray will also be compatible with a wider range of nozzle options.

“We can use our rear-incline nozzle to achieve a See and Spray speed of 16 m.p.h.,” says Ladd.

“We’re now approved to work with straight-down nozzles, though it does reduce the operational speed down to 12 m.p.h.

“Previously we said you had to use a specific category of nozzles, so we’re now widening that a bit, giving customers flexibility in nozzles they like to use for their operation.”

Deere will continue to offer the See and Spray system on a subscription basis, which Ladd says helps reduce the initial purchase cost.

The Gen 2 system will be available on 408R, 410R, 412R, 612R, and 616R sprayers, as well as all Hagie sprayers, the STS12, STS16, and STS20 for model year 2027.

Also, a new four-wheel steering feature will be an option on the 400 Series chassis, something that was previously available only on the Hagie sprayer lineup.

For those who would like to add targeted spraying to their operation but don’t want to fork out the cost of an entirely new machine, Deere is offering a See and Spray Select upgrade kit for some previous model year machines.

The Gen 2 See and Spray technology will be on display in John Deere’s exhibit at the Ag in Motion farm show this summer.

The post Deere expands spot spray system for small grains crops appeared first on Grainews.

Not only has the pace of introducing new products and technology been unrelenting, but at the same time ongoing budget cuts at all government levels have reduced or eliminated the valuable network of independent crop and livestock researchers who for decades provided reliable feedback on the efficacy of new technology.

And for producers, the stakes are getting higher. As management consultants such as McKinsey & Company point out in published reports, the cost of agricultural inputs has increased globally between 80 and 250 per cent in the last few years. South American farmers have been the hardest hit, at about 247 per cent, while Asia’s input costs (around 82 per cent) are the least affected. The point being it is costing farmers more to produce agricultural products.

So when it comes to the value of great new ideas, where do producers place their input dollars to optimize production and still realize a satisfactory return on investment?

There is no silver bullet answer to that complex question, say several independent consulting agronomists across Western Canada working to provide clients with useful and relevant recommendations for their farms. Each consultant applies different strategies to evaluate new products, practices and technology. All aim to help producers make more informed management decisions.

The three Rs

Long-time southern Alberta crop consultant George Lubberts says professional agronomists need to ask the same questions about new products or technology as any consumer.

“I believe we need to apply the same scrutiny and due diligence whether it is the consultant, the farmer or the average consumer,” says Lubberts. “I’ve boiled it down to three Rs — we need to be looking and asking for independent research, local research results and return on investment for the grower.

“If someone comes along with a new product or service or new technology they want me to recommend to a producer, they need to be able to show me the independent research they used to evaluate that product or service. They need to be able to show me the local research results that make that product relevant to this geographic area and my client’s farm. And they also need to provide a cost-benefit or show the return on investment to my client. And if they can’t do that, then maybe it is a product or technology we need to avoid. They are asking me to endorse their product, but it is my reputation that is on the line and as independent agronomists, our reputations are important.”

Lubberts says independent research results are important because company-generated research can be biased. Local research and crop-specific research results are important as well.

“A new product might work well on durum wheat in central Saskatchewan, for example,” says Lubberts. “But how is it going to perform on hard red spring wheat in southern Alberta?”

And what about return on investment? “Is a 10 or 15 per cent ROI sufficient?” he asks. “A 15 per cent return might be great if you have money invested in a savings account, but with all the variables and risks of farming if you spend $100 per acre, is an extra $15 return sufficient? It is up to the producer to decide, but perhaps they should be looking at a 100 per cent return. I remember years ago an economist saying ‘Spending on fertilizer should produce a 3:1 return —you get $3 back for every dollar spent on fertilizer.’ It is important to look at the ROI and determine if it is worthwhile.”

And Lubberts also points out that not every benefit revolves around money. Does a new technology save time or improve efficiency? He points to the value of applying growth regulators to cereal crops. They don’t increase yield directly, but if they reduce crop lodging, that can increase the amount of grain that goes in the bin and reduce the stress of combining.

“Maybe using a new product or new technology just helps a person sleep better at night,” says Lubberts. “That can be worth a lot.”

Lubberts has also hired independent research organizations to help sort out questions about certain production practices. In 2020, for example, he contracted Farming Smarter to conduct research over two growing seasons to determine the best time to roll barley fields after seeding. Fields need to be rolled to push down rocks and flatten clumps of dirt to reduce damage risk to harvester headers as crops are cut for silage. But when should fields be rolled — soon after the crop has emerged? Or, should producers wait until the fourth leaf of first node stage, which was believed to produce a better silage stand?

“It was important to have some replicated trials to determine the best time for rolling fields,” says Lubberts.

The two-year trials showed that there were disadvantages to later field rolling. “My advice today is to roll those fields as soon as the farmer can see plants growing in the drill rows,” says Lubberts.

The research Lubberts funded prompted Farming Smarter to secure provincial research dollars to continue the research for three more years, looking at the time of field rolling on other crops.

“Yes, it costs money to hire contractors to conduct research, and it’s not something I can do on every question. But I look at it as an investment that helps me provide more relevant recommendations to my clients.”

Artificial intelligence compiles research

As a consulting agronomist as well as an instructor of precision agriculture at Lethbridge Polytechnic, Scott Gillespie says it is a challenge to stay current on rapidly changing agricultural products and technology.

The owner of Plants Dig Soil Consulting Ltd. based in Taber, Alta., Gillespie says his first step when it comes to new products and technology is to see what’s available in terms of independent, third-party research results.

“I can’t rely too much on company trials or even farmer testimonials,” he says. “Those results are interesting, but I really need to look for third-party research trials to see what work has been done.

“It is a challenge. There is just so much new stuff coming out that it is hard to keep up with the information and for research to remain relevant. For example, in some cases, a new product may be introduced but if it takes four or five years to plan, complete and evaluate a three-year replicated trial, that product might have been replaced by something else.”

Gillespie says research results collected by applied research organizations as well as commodity organizations across Western Canada are an excellent source of information.

“They develop properly designed research projects, often conducted as field-scale trials,” he says. “They provide very useful information that can be passed along to producers.”

When it comes to evaluating new production practices, it becomes even more of a challenge, because the practice may require investment in new equipment. Gillespie says evaluating, for example, strip tillage and precision planters, involves buying new equipment.

“For some things, I may need to look at well-established research from further afield, such as in the U.S. And from that you can see if the new practice or technology would be of value under southern Alberta growing conditions,” he says. “If it seems to make sense, then maybe more research is needed here to help with fine tuning that practice for local growing conditions. I can use that existing research to give me some idea whether something might be adapted locally.”

And again, to deal with an avalanche of information on new products and new technology, Gillespie is hoping that artificial intelligence can help with research efforts.

“For my own consulting business, as well as for teaching students about precision agriculture, there is just so much information out there. And how do you sort out what is the most relevant?” says Gillespie. “AI has just exploded in the last couple of years, so a year ago, I tried using ChatGPT to help sort through the research information. You can pick a topic, ask ChatGPT some questions and see what it comes up with.”

He uses ChatGPT but notes that Google, Microsoft and several other platforms have similar applications as well.

Gillespie says initially he found ChatGPT was making a lot of mistakes. But in the past year, as the program and database have improved, so have the ChatGPT results. “I can go to a topic such as soil health tests, for example, and ask it what kind of tests are out there, what are the pros and cons, what are the benefits and what are the critics saying, and it produces a fairly decent report.

“Today ChatGPT is able to cite its reference sources, so you can go to those research reports and determine how relevant they are. It is useful to have those references. It still has a ways to go. You still need to verify things, but it helps narrow things down. It is better than a Google search that just provides a list of websites. It narrows things down and you are able to find information faster.”

Along with artificial intelligence technology, Gillespie says he also reads several online magazines and farm newspapers to keep current on products and trends.

Turning to the U.S.

As he provides agronomy services to clients in southeastern Manitoba, adjacent to the North Dakota border, Adam Funk has found he often has to look to the U.S. to find new products, new varieties and agronomic research most relevant to his farming clients.

Funk, who owns Borderline Agriculture Inc., lives and farms near Winkler, about four miles north of North Dakota and just west of the Red River Valley. The valley floods every year as snowmelt and spring runoff from Minnesota and North Dakota move north through the valley toward Lake Winnipeg.

“There are agriculture research facilities in Manitoba about an hour north of where I live, but most of their research pertains more to crop production in western Manitoba than it does to eastern Manitoba,” says Funk. “And there is bean breeding work at an Ag Canada research centre, but it’s not keeping pace with new, higher-yielding varieties being developed in the U.S. So, for research information and new varieties relevant to producers in this area, I rely more on extension services from North Dakota State University as well as agriculture research in Minnesota. This part of eastern Manitoba with the Red River Valley has more in common with farming in the northern U.S.”

While soybeans were once grown widely in southeastern Manitoba, Funk says his clients have now found that corn and dry beans are the most profitable crops. To keep his clients as up-to-date as possible on new corn varieties, Funk works with producers to establish field-scale, replicated variety trials.

“Depending on the width of the planter, we will place seed of new corn varieties in four or six rows across the planter and then make at least two passes with the planter a half mile long,” says Funk. “Each variety within these field-scale replicated trials are harvested separately come fall, and usually the top performing varieties will be the ones recommended to producers for the following year.”

Similarly, with dry beans, he works with bean buyers who have access to U.S. markets and varieties. The buyers will select U.S.-developed new black, pinto or cranberry bean varieties, for example, and then obtain the minor use registration needed to evaluate those varieties in Canada.

Working with some of his clients, Funk will organize trials of these new varieties. Information on the top-performing varieties in Canada will be passed along to the bean buyers who will then advocate for the registration of those varieties in Canada.

When it comes to crop protection products, Funk also keeps a close eye on what products are working to control weeds and diseases in U.S. corn and dry bean crops.

The situation is complicated for many farms within the Manitoba Red River Valley flood plain as weed seeds such as waterhemp, kochia and Palmer amaranth are carried into Canada by floodwater from northern U.S. states. Some are familiar weeds in Canada while others are fairly new.

“For many years the challenge was dealing with herbicide resistance in wild oats,” says Funk. “But now we are seeing more broadleaf weeds with herbicide resistance.” He keeps an eye on what herbicides are used by U.S. farmers and then sees if there is comparable herbicide chemistry registered in Canada that can be used by Manitoba farmers.

“There are a few older, registered products that can be used with dry beans,” he says. “If there is a new product in the marketplace, we have to rely on the chemical companies to obtain minor use registration. The agronomists working for the chemical companies in this area do an excellent job.”

And herbicides aren’t the only weed control option. “One practice I have seen more of in the past couple of years on about 10 to 15 per cent of the acres farmed by my clients, is that farmers are pulling their cultivators out of the bush and using the cultivator to control weeds on some of their row crops,” says Funk. “They are weighing the option of making an $8 per acre cultivator pass versus perhaps a $50 to $100 per acre treatment with herbicide.

“Some long time agronomists are saying that farming has gone full circle, from tillage to zero-tillage and now back to tillage again,” says Funk. “I don’t believe that conservation farming practices will disappear, but tillage may return as one of the tools in the toolbox.”

Working with clients, he’s evaluated fall cover crops as a way to control weeds, but with generally long-season crops in rotation, there isn’t always time after harvest to get cover crops established. He’s also working with a group of farmers who have teamed up to buy a field sprayer, with plans to use John Deere See and Spray or green-on-green technology that uses sensors to differentiate between crop and weeds. As the sprayer makes a pass, weeds can be essentially spot sprayed or controlled more selectively.

“With it costing crop protection companies hundreds of millions to develop and register a new molecule for weed control, for example, it takes time for new chemistry to come to the marketplace,” says Funk. “It is important to also be looking at cultural control practices and other new technology such as robotic tillage and laser-guided weed control tools which perhaps 10 years down the road will be in common use.”

The power of a network

As a long-time consulting agronomist, as well as being part of a large family-run farming operation, Terry Aberhart has two objectives in mind as he evaluates new products or production practices.

“We are interested to see if this product has a fit for our own farming operation, but also to determine if it is something I can recommend to my clients,” says Aberhart, founder of Sure Growth Solutions Inc., located at Langenburg in east-central Saskatchewan.

“Usually we establish some field-scale replicated plots on our farm and we will monitor the results of those trials for three growing seasons. That information will give us a good idea if this is something we want to use on our farm, or if it has a fit with our clients.”

He also looks for any relevant research material about the product or technology, and often asks other agronomists if they’ve had experience with a particular treatment.

Over his consulting career, Aberhart says he has always found value in talking with other agronomists about their experience of what works and doesn’t work. With that in mind, he and six other consulting agronomists from across Saskatchewan and Manitoba formalized an agreement in the fall of 2024 to be part of the MNP AgIntellect service.

Each consulting agronomist will still “do their own thing” in terms of providing consulting services to their clients, but being part of MNP’s AgIntellect will provide an opportunity for them to share their knowledge and experience with each other.

MNP describes AgIntellect as “an all-in-one approach to farming.” With expertise in accounting and business planning, the company, by tapping into a network of consulting agronomists, can now add a new level of information to agronomic field decisions and ag technology provided to MNP clients.

“As a group, we’ve only been part of this for a few months,” says Aberhart. “But it has been great. It’s been an excellent opportunity for us to share our knowledge and experience with each other. Every consultant does things a little bit differently — uses different software, for example — and we each have our strengths whether it be in technology and data, or crop planning, or disease and weed control. And there is even a consultant with more experience in working with Hutterite colonies. So, as we share our knowledge, hopefully that will help us provide better service to own clients.”

The Saskatchewan and Manitoba consultants involved in the network represent clients cropping about 1.5 million acres of farmland. Aberhart says discussion is underway to invite Alberta consultants to the network as well.

Down the road, he sees opportunity for the network of consultants to organize research trials in their respective areas, which again will provide useful information on a product, production practice or technology that can be shared with clients.

“I believe there is great power in being involved with a network of your peers,” says Aberhart. “There is power in being able to share information, which helps to increase our knowledge and experience and makes our individual businesses more valuable. It all leads to providing improved services to our clients.”

The post Evaluating new tech, products and practices appeared first on Grainews.

The Chicago-area company was willing to take the tractor out to farms, let farmers try it and see for themselves if an autonomous tractor could fit into their operation.

“We like to just bring it out, put it on the farm and see how it works, show growers how to run it and see what they can do with it, if it fits their operation,” Sabanto field application engineer Alex Valdez says.

The M5 is a utility-class tractor with limited horsepower, so the range of jobs it can do are limited — but that may be the best way to introduce farmers to the concept of autonomy, according to Sabanto’s CEO and founder Craig Rupp.

“I’ll be a realist. I’m not going to paint some rosy picture of a farmer not even having to go outside. I don’t think autonomy is an all-or-nothing proposition. There are certain operations that are still going to have to be done manually into the short and mid-term.”

Start simple

Rupp’s plan for Sabanto is to start by tackling the simple jobs that can most easily be handled autonomously and move on to more complex tasks as the system is refined over time with experience.

It’s an approach others hoping to provide autonomous farming systems to the market have said they embrace, too.

WATCH THIS: Conversion kit makes conventional tractors autonomous

“Right now I’m focused on reducing labour. My goal right now is to start with the mundane and work toward improving it and getting better and better. As a startup, we have to refine, improve and fix problems.”

For simple jobs that require more horsepower, Sabanto does offer conversion kits for larger models, like the 700 series Fendts. The Sabanto system is now compatible with 19 different models from three brands: Kubota, Fendt and John Deere.

“It’s a fairly easy-to-install system,” Valdez says. “It takes about a day to put on. There isn’t anything that takes the tractor out of factory settings. We tie into existing systems. Through that we’re able to get telemetry data off the tractor. On some tractors we have actuators for brakes and hydraulic hitch control. But we use GPS and our own proprietary software to generate tractor paths that will allow the tractor to do all types of field work.”

The company’s Path Planner operational software is fully customizable, allowing the user to set specific field tasks as needed.

“We’re able to monitor it remotely through our user interface,” Valdez adds.” It will generate a path and display it. You can even hit like a playback that will demonstrate the path the tractor is taking. When everything is to your liking, you can establish that as a mission to the tractor and send it on its way.

But if farmers want to have someone else monitor and set the autonomous tractor to work, Sabanto now offers a service to do exactly that, too.

Off-site oversight

“The newest thing is we have what we call virtual field operators,” Rupp says. “These are our people that are an extension of some of the farming operations we’re working with.

“The people at the farming operation park the tractor in a field. Her (the field operator’s) responsibility is deploying the system, monitoring it, moving it from field to field. Right now she watches over about 12 systems at once, and five farming operations.”

The tractors don’t need to be constantly watched as they work; they simply need someone to be able to respond to messages from it and arrange to get it to do what the farmer wants at the right time.

That also means a farmer or farm manager can go home for the evening and be sure a tractor operating after the normal workday is over will still be monitored.

READ ALSO: Will very-high-horsepower tractors go extinct?

“In the markets we’re in now, we found when they leave the farm, they’re done for the day,” says Rupp. “With the promise of 24/7 (operation), when they go home at night they’re preoccupied. So I have people that are working with farming operations and performing those tasks.”

Most of the systems Sabanto has working now use cellular networks to communicate with the person monitoring them. However, other types of communications, such as satellite links, can be used.

As for which types of operations are most compatible with autonomy, Rupp says at the moment it’s likely those that require a large number of work hours at fairly simple jobs — which is why the company started off in the sod farm industry. Growers there have to cut the grass every two or three days, requiring hundreds of operating hours every season.

“It’s a great beachhead market for us to get hours and acres. They’re out in the field every day. And every day we get another touchpoint to improve our product. Now we’re looking at going after the hay and forage industry. There are some hay operations that are doing 10 cuts a year.”

GPS Ontario currently handles Canadian sales for Sabanto.

The post Would an autonomous tractor really fit your operation? appeared first on Grainews.

A green-on-brown system, however, could offer significant reductions in herbicide use during pre-seeding and post-harvest burndowns.

PTx Trimble’s WeedSeeker 2 system offers that capability and is retrofittable to most existing sprayers.

“We’re not limited from a compatibility perspective to make, model or brand, as it’s a component that can work with any sprayer that’s out there,” says Justin Prickel, the product team manager for application controls at PTx Trimble.

“This solution can be added to an existing sprayer with a display in it. If that display is ISOBUS compatible, it will load up on there and provide the whole user interface. That’s where the technology communicates from a retrofit perspective. The WeedSeeker is fully ISOBUS compatible.”

If there isn’t a compatible monitor in the sprayer, it would require installation of a PTx Trimble GFX1260 or 1060 monitor.

READ MORE: Study shows effectiveness of green-on-brown sprayer technology

The retrofit involves mounting a WeedSeeker 2 sensor in front of each nozzle along the sprayer boom, which is usually about every 20 inches. The sensor controls the nozzle behind it and turns it on and off when a weed is detected. The nozzle can be activated within five milliseconds. That permits field travel speeds of up to 25 m.p.h. (40 km/h).

“Each sensor runs autonomously,” Prickel says. “The calibration is stored in the sensor, all the decision-making is in each individual sensor itself, when it comes to seeing a weed or not. That’s where we get the speed and accuracy.”

Each sensor has its own light source, so it can run day and night as well as in dusty conditions, using red and near-infrared lighting. That gives the system an advantage over some other camera systems. All the necessary peripherals, wiring and installation instructions are included with the system.

PTx Trimble offers top-, front- or bottom-mount generic mounting brackets to place the sensors in a location on the boom that will prevent them from being damaged when the boom is folded up.

A single WeedSeeker 2 system can handle up to 96 sensors. A typical 120-foot boom would only need 72. There is also a smaller system package available that maxes out at 18 sensors. It uses a lighter wiring harness, because less power is required to operate the smaller number of sensors. They’re meant for small units, such as something attached to a UTV.

One downside of the system is it adds extra weight to the boom, for which some sprayer models may not be adequately designed.

“So you need to understand the weight you’re adding to existing booms,” Prickel says. “There are some cases where you need to change out your lift cylinders. Smaller, older units don’t have the hydraulic capacity to handle the added weight.”

Also, he recommends removing the sensors when doing in-crop spraying during the season to protect them until they are needed again.

“You don’t want expensive sensors riding on the boom when they’re not being used for half the season, or whatever the case may be.”

Although PTx Trimble doesn’t offer quick-detach connections, Prickel says some of the brand’s dealers have designed their own, which allow the sensors to be removed in sections rather than individually.

“Essentially this solution is a component to add on to an existing sprayer,” he says. “So it’s not a rate control solution. It takes that sprayer from section control to real-time turning that nozzle on and off.”

The system will record some information on a field map to give a grower an overall picture of the locations and amount of weed pressure in a field.

“Through Task Controller, depending on the display, it does log an ISO XML map,” he says. “It is more what we call a weed density map. Depending on how it’s set up, section-wise, within each section you might have eight or 10 sensors. The way Task Controllers are monitoring today is a percentage of the section that’s on or off at any given time. It’s making an as-applied map while doing a spot spray. It’s not controlling the rate, it’s a weed density coverage map.”

The post WeedSeeker 2 offers spot-spraying retrofit for existing sprayers appeared first on Grainews.

In a meeting of senior management several months ago, the decision to pursue that goal was made, he says. Now the company is pulling out all the stops to move from the back of the pack to the front.

“We want to be the industry leader for smart farming solutions. We want to be the best. So we compiled all the things needed to become the best. We increased our engineering budget by 60 per cent since then. Those engineers have doubled our portfolio. We bought six tech companies. We made the biggest ag tech deal in the history of the industry in creating the j.v. (joint venture) with Trimble. All of that contributes to one north star: becoming the industry leader in smart farming solutions and autonomy.”

Unlike any of the other OEMs, Agco intends to reach that goal with a “retrofit first” strategy, aiming to supply farmers with technology that will work across all brands, not just on its own machines.

“We’re going to be the mixed-fleet data platform that’s better than anybody else,” he adds.

Hansotia believes retrofit is the most cost-efficient way for producers to adopt new technologies and could also be the most profitable way for the brand to introduce it — because it’s the least vulnerable to market downturns.

“Retrofit has never had a down year. In the 25 or 30 years Precision Planting has been in existence, it’s always grown.

“In a good market you could say I’m making so much money I’m not pushed to raise production. Right now the margins are razor-thin for farmers, so they have a choice. If I’ve got to get more efficient with my planter, maybe I’ll do it for $150,000 instead of $500,000. So retrofit keeps going.”

One of the next technologies to come from the brand is Outrun, a retrofit autonomy kit that will allow late-model 8R John Deere tractors and select models of Agco’s Fendt brand to pull a grain cart. It will be expanded to include tillage applications shortly after that initial release, then eventually include other machines and field tasks.

How buyers pay for it will change from how machinery has been traditionally sold. There’ll be an initial purchase cost, then a subscription fee to keep it running.

Hansotia acknowledges farmers aren’t exactly thrilled with the concept of subscription-based equipment sales, but he thinks it offers an advantage for high-end technologies, such as autonomy.

“Farmers in general still don’t like recurring revenue. Farmers will tell you they would much rather, in most cases, when times are good they’d like to buy it, finance it and have it all handled. And then when times are a little tougher, they want to minimize their costs. They don’t like these costs every year. For machinery that’s still the case.

“When you get into autonomy, features are going to be changing fast all the time. So if you get into a subscription, you’re just always going to get the latest features. So it could be that autonomy is one that’s viewed differently. That’s how we’re looking at it. So in certain areas there’s a receptivity. If it’s just a regular machine, we think customers are still going to [prefer outright purchase].”

How Agco delivers equipment, technology and support services to farmers is evolving too. Early this year the company announced its FarmerCore program, which aims to reshape dealerships, moving from traditional fixed dealership locations to more mobile on-farm delivery.

Dealers have been given assistance from the brand to help move toward implementing the concept, such as an organized group buy on service trucks.

“FarmerCore is flipping the model 180 degrees,” Hansotia says. “Instead of having the customer come to the business, the business comes to the customer. This wouldn’t have been possible 20 years ago. Now we have the digital tools, connected machines, people comfortable with online shopping and consuming information directly.

“We’ve turned it on for all of North and South America. We had Canada and U.S. dealers in a dealer meeting in January for three days. And we walked them through all the specifics of what we’re trying to achieve, what the tools are, what they need to do, what the outcomes are for the farmer, all that kind of thing. So we’re expecting it to happen in all the Canadian dealers.

“The feedback we’ve gotten so far is not only do the customers like it, but the dealers like it, because it’s a much more flexible way for them to grow with these trucks instead of having to put up bricks and mortar.”

The post How Agco is striving for tech dominance appeared first on Grainews.

Agco has acquired an 85 per cent share in the j.v., while Trimble retains a 15 per cent interest. Also falling under the PTx brand will be Agco’s JCA Technologies and Precision Planting businesses. The new company will become a key part of Agco’s product portfolio.

“PTx now makes its way as one of Agco’s five core brands,” PTx Trimble general manager Andrew Sunderman says. “PTx is our technology portion of the business, which consists of two go-to-market brands: PTx Trimble, which is our joint venture between Agco and Trimble, as well as our second go-to-market brand, Precision Planting.”

Any new digital products developed by Agco going forward will also become part of the PTx portfolio.

“We thought it was important to have a strong identity in the market for this new company that solidifies our focus on precision agriculture, cutting edge technologies,” he added. “And that ‘x’ (in the name) signifies the multiplication effect of bringing these two companies together.”

PTx Trimble products will continue to be sold and supported through Trimble’s existing network of dealers — but qualified Fendt, Massey Ferguson and Valtra dealers will have the opportunity to begin to sell them as well. The company will start to bring those dealers onboard as PTx retailers, in much the same way it added Fendt to Agco’s equipment line.

“It’s 100 per cent a very similar approach,” Sunderman says. “Where there are capable Fendt, Massey Ferguson, Valtra and Precision Planting dealers around the world that do not overlap with our existing PTx Trimble dealers, we’ll be working with those that are interested and capable to bring them on as PTx Trimble dealers to sell and support PTx Trimble products.”

Agco’s own in-house digital systems that have so far been offered from the factory in Fendt and Massey Ferguson equipment will continue to be offered for the foreseeable future — but expect the PTx Trimble system to be gradually integrated into Agco equipment as an OEM feature.

“As we go forward, our teams are looking at how do we take the best of both of these, bringing them together, and have a solution that allows our customers to connect their in-cab experience with their back-office solutions,” Sunderman says.

Aside from the fact that products in the PTx portfolio are already being used as original equipment by dozens of OEMs, a key feature of PTx Trimble systems will be they can be installed on any brand of machine, including older equipment. That will allow farms with multi-coloured fleets to integrate all of their machine operations seamlessly into one network.

“That allows customers to connect their machines of any make and any vintage into one common off-board platform,” he adds.

“I think in order to be the trusted partner in the industry, you need to be able to serve all farmers. In doing so we take an approach that allows our technology products (to) work for any brand, and going back many years often times. So customers don’t have to trade out their piece of equipment or buy new just to get the latest in technology.”

That said, technology is “becoming a large part of customer buying decisions,” Sunderman says. “At PTx Trimble our vision is to be the industry leader for mixed fleet smart farming and autonomy solutions, really working to serve all farmers with all makes and all vintages specifically with precision ag technologies and really leading in autonomous solutions.”

The post New PTx brand a blend of precision farming systems appeared first on Grainews.

NASA Harvest executive director Alyssa Whitcraft told attendees at this year’s Canadian Crops Convention that use of satellite imagery has exploded in some sectors — but its adoption in agriculture has lagged.

“The adoption of satellite data on-farm and other parts of the ag value chain is really not where we envisioned (it would be), given we have 50 years of history with it at this point,” she says.

A primary reason for reluctance is a tendency by some in the tech sector to oversell what the technology offers.

“This is one of my big frustrations. People say ‘Yeah, we can absolutely, completely estimate every single … thing that is happening on your farm,’” she says.

“People say ‘That’s amazing, that’s so cool. I want to use that,’ and then it doesn’t track at all with what they’re observing on their farm and it’s not providing any value add. People feel burned …

“It’s cool enough already. We don’t have to overestimate what it does.”

Another reason is lack of engagement with the farm community by companies that produce the technology, she says.

The result is a critical lack of true ground data used to power those systems. It has also resulted in solutions to problems that aren’t a concern on most farms.

“Most of the people I work with are engineers or computer scientists. They’re not necessarily thinking about the problems that really need to be addressed,” she says.

“I remember early on, someone in the remote sensing community coming to me … and they said ‘Why don’t we just use satellite images to maximize yields?’

“That’s the wrong question. It was an interesting thing for me to realize we’re often engineering solutions to problems that nobody asked for.”

To drive on-farm adoption of satellite imagery, the scientific community must develop a better connection between technology and people. That means taking a more collaborative approach.

Whitcraft cited the example of NASA Harvest’s work with the farm community in Maui, Hawaii.

Members of the younger generation on the island didn’t see a viable future in agriculture. That began to change as they became aware of high-tech careers that could allow them to earn an income while cultivating food on their ancestral lands and helping address chronic food insecurity.

“What we do is driven by our collaborators,” she says. “We used to talk about them as users or end-users. But in order for us to make a difference, it has to be collaborative. They have to be collaborators from the beginning if they are long-term users of the tools we develop.

“It’s about building a trust infrastructure to unlock the value of Earth observations with farmers.”

Messaging must also foster greater collaboration, she adds, and focus not on seeking data for company needs, but on delivery of economical measurements to farmers.

Whitcraft repeated in an interview that enhanced collaboration will drive on-farm adoption.

“I think the wrong approach is to tell. It’s to show. The only way you can do that is collaboratively,” she says.

“We’re putting out webinars, we’re putting out surveys to get the temperature of large groups at a time. I think that will help us broadly. But I think the only way we’re going to get there is through concerted efforts that grow organically.”

Paul Bullock, a senior scholar in the University of Manitoba soil sciences department, said in an interview it’s difficult to determine the adoption rate of Earth observation technology in Canada but many farmers are reluctant to adopt it. That, he says, is due in part to lack of collaboration.

“You need some kind of a partnership. The person who knows that (on-farm information) best is the person who is farming the land. They’re the one who’s going to have the best idea.”

“You need some kind of a linkage between the research right down to the farm gate level to try and bridge that gap. I don’t know that there’s been enough of that done to make farmers feel confident that the people who can provide this (data) are actually able to provide some knowledgeable and accurate and useful information.”

Time is likely another factor hindering adoption.

Bullock recently consulted with a digital analytics company that was trying to recruit farmers for a research project. Most were hesitant because it would require attention during seeding and harvesting.

Involvement by producer groups could help, Bullock says.

“Producer groups are vetting all kinds of research proposals and they know what people are doing because they’re plugged into the research community.”

The post Farm focus needed for eyes in the sky appeared first on Grainews.

The planters are available in 12/23-row and 16/31-row configurations that will work on both 15- and 30-inch row spacings. The pivot fold gives them a narrow width for road transport.

“Our 5670 model planters are new from hitch pin to closing wheels,” Kinze Manufacturing president Susanne Veatch says in a press release.

“Building on the proven design of our 5900 and 5700 model planters, the 5670 is packed with standard features that boost productivity in diverse planting environments, along with expanded controls and conveniences for the operator.”

The new planters use Kinze’s new 5000 Series electric-drive pull-and-push row units and have various residue control, closing wheel and seed handling options to choose from.

The row units bolt to an “all-new” frame with 24 inches (60 cm) of toolbar clearance and 12 inches (30 cm) of row unit travel. The frame has an adjustable, active hydraulic weight transfer and up to 30 degrees of wing flex. The planters can exert up to 650 pounds (295 kilograms) of downforce to penetrate tough soil conditions.

The 5670s can be equipped with bulk-fill hoppers and onboard fertilizer tanks at the same time. A Blue Vantage display-controlled onboard 300-gallon fertilizer system uses a diaphragm-style pump with delivery rates of 2 to 25 g.p.m. (7.5 to 95 l/hr). Optional factory-installed plumbing can connect to saddle tanks or a nurse tank, and an automatic tank levelling system maintains equal fertilizer levels in both onboard tanks while planting on hillsides.

The vacuum-electric seed meters can handle working speeds of up to eight m.p.h. (13 km/h).

Maintenance requirements are reduced due to fewer grease zerks, easier adjustments than on previous Kinze models, and longer-life components.

Under license

As for digital features, Kinze in March announced a new agreement with John Deere after a legal dispute over digital access ended last fall. Kinze and Ag Leader equipment users can now integrate their data with Deere’s telematics and send it to the John Deere Operations Centre.

“As part of the agreement, farmers operating Kinze and Ag Leader planting and display products will now have the option to seamlessly integrate their agronomic data into the John Deere Operations Center,” Deere said in a separate statement.

“The companies have also agreed to resolve all outstanding litigation through an arrangement where John Deere will license planting technology to Kinze and Ag Leader, ensuring their customers continue to have access to the True Speed and SureSpeed technologies.”

“At John Deere, we’re proud of the equipment and technology solutions we develop for farmers,” Aaron Wetzel, vice-president of production and precision agriculture production systems, says. “But we also know our customers have choices when they make equipment purchase decisions. We put our customers first with this agreement, which will result in a more seamless integration of Kinze planting solutions with John Deere equipment and our technology stack.

“We remain committed to helping all of our customers, including those with mixed fleets, be more productive, profitable, and sustainable in their operations.”

Kinze and Deere also said they are pursuing even more “collaboration” opportunities and expect to announce what those are in the future.

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“The 380 and the 400 both get five additional horsepower,” says Morgan Dietrich, tractor segment lead for Case IH in North America. “Everything else in the large frame, starting at 250 and larger, they get 15. Our No. 1 seller is the 340. And that will now be a 355.”

But the tractors will still get that power from what the brand calls the Cursor 9-litre diesel — which, technically speaking, has an 8.7-litre displacement.

The 355 will also get a new transmission: a 21F x 5R power shift, which will be included in its base equipment list.

“That had only been available in the 400 before,” added Deitrich. “We changed the rear end on the 340 — which is now the 355 — to enable this improved power shift transmission that has brake-to-clutch capability.”

The new transmission offering will make the 355 compatible with future autonomous operating systems, by simplifying what’s required to make that workable when Case IH eventually offers it.

“It really kind of future-proofs the tractor,” he said. “Long-term, when we have those controls, like brake-to-clutch, it allows the electronics to have a little more control of the transmission than our current generation. We don’t have autonomy features on it today, but it enables that capability in the future.”

Another significant change for the Magnums will be in how the brand offers technology packages for them. Where currently, buyers can pick and choose their preferred individual features, for 2025, digital features will instead come in two complete package options.

“The big thing is we’re really pushing in on our technology messaging around model year ’25,” said Dietrich. “So, we will now have tech bundles that we haven’t had in the past, where it’s been more of an a la carte situation.

“We’re going to have Core, which would be our base offering, where we’re going to put our Vector Pro receiver in base. And we’re also going to move to AFS 1 guidance correction. That’s a 40 per cent increase in guidance accuracy versus what our base offering was last year.

“For customers that need a little bit more, they can move up to the advanced package — and that has an RTK unlock in the Vector Pro receiver, and it also offers dual display, where we bring more screen real estate into the cab to make it easier for them to run their implements.

“It really is a one-two punch of what best fits a customer’s operation. With these tech changes we’re making, it’s simpler for the dealer and easier for the customer, and it’s even easier for the second and third buyer to know what technology is on this machine when they go to purchase it.”

Both option packages use the AFS Pro 1200 monitor, but the difference will be in what features are unlocked.

At the rear, the Magnums will adopt the hydraulic coupler design with levers, as used on their larger brothers in the Steiger line.

“We had different hydraulic couplers (on the Magnums and Steigers),” Dietrich. “Now, we’re aligning them between these two machines. The large-frame Magnums will get the same hydraulic couplers customers have been using on Steigers for the last several years. It makes it easier to hook and unhook. And it’s simpler having more continuity across the platforms.”

Steiger Quadtracs can now ride on redesigned suspension

In early February, Case IH revealed it will give operators of model year 2025 Steiger four-wheel drive Quadtrac tractors an option for a smoother ride, especially during road transport — and they’ll spend less time on the road, with a faster 26.5 m.p.h. (40 km-h) travel speed.

Those advantages will come thanks to a new HDS suspension system for the track modules, which will be an option on 2025 Steiger Quadtracs.

“We have a new track system on the Steiger four-wheel drive,” said Morgan Dietrich, tractor segment lead for Case IH in North America. “At the National Farm Machinery Show we released the HDS, Heavy Duty Suspension. Now we have a fully active hydraulic suspension system on our Steigers with a faster transport speed.

“We have a longer track that helps with heat dissipation. And the big thing there is long-term durability of not only the tractor, but the operator. We have a 40 per cent reduction in vibration at the operator’s seat in transport. We’re taking those big jolts and jostles out of the whole tractor. We’re sucking it up in that suspension system of the tracks.”

HDS has greaseless design with a load sharing hydraulic suspension and self-tensioning tracks. The brand expects to begin accepting model year 2025 tractor orders around June this summer.

The post Case IH updates its Magnum tractor line appeared first on Grainews.

But that limited service affects the use of digitally connected machines in a farm fleet, which need good connectivity. So John Deere, for one, has been looking for solutions beyond typical cellular networks. In January the brand announced an agreement with SpaceX’s Starlink satellite service to provide connectivity for its machines.

Deere, in a release, says the agreement “will allow farmers facing rural connectivity challenges to fully leverage precision agriculture technologies.”

“For areas that have no connectivity today via terrestrial cellular networks, we need a solution that could ultimately allow us to connect these machines once and for all,” says Mike Kool, senior product manager for connected fleet at John Deere.

Before settling on an agreement with Starlink, Deere invited several network providers to show the green brand what they could do.

“We started in September of 2022, with what we considered a first-of-its-kind industry day at our test farm here in Iowa,” Kool says.

“We had 40 of the largest satcom providers here. Through that journey we’ve tested many different solutions. We went through customer co-op testing and our own internal testing in the U.S. and Brazil.”

But the Starlink deal doesn’t mean all farmers will be looking at an immediate wholesale change in how their machines transfer data. The use of Starlink will be gradually phased in. To start with, the service will be offered only in the U.S. and, notably, in Brazil, which has almost none of the necessary cellular infrastructure necessary for Deere to offer a useful level of digital machine management.

“Our goal is to bring this to a limited release this calendar year, 2024,” Kool says. “The limited release will be in the U.S. and Brazil for 2024. We estimate that 80 per cent of Brazil is just not covered by the necessary levels of connectivity, and that’s almost zero connectivity. And in the U.S., it’s about 30 per cent.”

The Starlink rollout will be gradually expanded to other regions around the globe.

“We want to release this to everywhere that needs it,” Kool adds. “We know Canada does. We’ve heard that loud and clear. We know Australia does. We know New Zealand does, but we have to start somewhere.”

In field trials, the Starlink connection was shown to offer a very high level of connectivity that improved data transfer and communication with Deere equipment. Kool cited an example of a custom harvester in the U.S. who took part in one of the practical tests of the system and received improved service.

“It allowed him to track his logistics to better use the technology on the machine,” he said. “So when you add that layer of connectivity you know is going to work, that drives a different kind of value. From a customer perspective, it’s been awesome.”

Despite the enhanced capabilities Starlink offers, Kool says Deere will not be abandoning the established cellular service networks. Instead, the Starlink system is intended only for those areas where cellular networks aren’t adequate.

“Our goal is to still connect via cell where we can,” he said. “Once you lose cellular coverage, service would fall over to the Starlink terminal and just work. That’s the layer of ubiquitous connectivity we’ve spoken about.

“We’re going to continue to work with our mobile network providers that provide cellular connectivity, and there’s still going to be uses for that. For areas where they don’t have that connectivity, that’s where this solution fits in.”

For some producers, it could mean relying on a mix of both networks.

“There’s going to be instances for some customers where some of their fields have great connectivity and others don’t,” he added. “If you want to unlock the full suite of the tech stack offerings, this is a way to do that.”

To connect to Starlink, machines will need a hardware upgrade to accommodate the different service.

For now, there is no definite timeline as to when Canadian producers can expect to join the Starlink service.

“If we talk about bringing a solution to Canada, we’re working through what that looks like right now,” Kool said. “There’s potential to bring something to the market there in 2025. I can’t commit to any specific dates. There’s a lot that goes into it from a certification perspective.”

“We think this solution is going to be a game-changer. If you can deliver connectivity in real time, it just makes all these (digital) solutions that much better.”

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